Well, I guess it is difficult for me to accept that the information that the department provided to the standing committee was taken at an unknown point of time. I mean, somebody tabulated that information, then somebody has to know where and when that information was tabulated. Ninety-plus percent vacancy -- by the way, I will back up -- I don't think committee has any objections to Fort Smith students staying in those housing units. If they are vacant and there are students from other communities staying in there, why the heck wouldn't we want Fort Smith students to be able to take up that vacant housing, it only makes sense. I think what we are saying is, fine, Fort Smith students are taking up vacant housing, but even after that, there are still vacancies in Fort Smith for college housing. We are going to sit down and identify top priorities and compare that to Yellowknife where there is a waiting list. There is not a single student residence vacant and there are no Yellowknife students staying in that housing. It doesn't seem to me that when the priorities shake out in the capital planning process, that we've got our priorities in line here. I accept that the fire code regulations have to be dealt with immediately or else we have to move students out of those units, and I guess my questions still are around Breynat Hall. The information we had -- and the Minister hasn't given me anything contrary to what I received the first time -- was that there was a huge vacancy in that building. I accept that it's old, I accept that it probably needs work, but is there vacancy in that building? The information that we had was that almost half the units were vacant.
Brendan Bell on General Comments
In the Legislative Assembly on February 25th, 2003. See this statement in context.
General Comments
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 24th, 2003
Page 315
See context to find out what was said next.